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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27005695">"I've Missed This"</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curreeus/pseuds/Curreeus'>Curreeus</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Way Out (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Just slightly, M/M, more pre-slash but this one is a little more suggestive than the other, so it gets the ship tag</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:15:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>840</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27005695</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curreeus/pseuds/Curreeus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fictober Prompt 13 - "I missed this"</p><p>Leo and Vincent stop for a moment of stillness, and Vincent thinks too much, as usual.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Leo Caruso/Vincent Moretti</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>A Way Out Fictober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>"I've Missed This"</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>whelp this one's a little late but we gettin there bois<br/>I'm trying to keep these short for my own sanity but somehow even with that I never finish things within a timeframe goddammit</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It takes a stolen car and an hour’s long drive out of the city to collect guns to bring Vincent’s guard down, and by the time they leave the meeting with Jasmine, Vincent’s feeling a lot better about their chances of getting to finalise their plan. He feels a little bit of the tension that’s been with him for what feels like months drain out of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo must have a good read on him by now because he seems to notice, and after a few more minutes of driving, Leo pulls over, smiling in that oddly subdued way he sometimes does at Vincent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vincent just frowns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are we stopping for? We have a ways to go before we get back to the city, Leo.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo just chuckles, somehow manages to produce two bottles of beer, and tells Vincent to drink - “Come on, we got a moment, just enjoy it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gestures to the sunset that has just arrived on the horizon. Vincent takes a moment to realise what Leo means, and when he does, he realises he hasn’t found time to sit and watch the sunset for years. Somewhat stunned at this revelation, he takes the bottle and looks towards the horizon, squinting at the light and pulling down the front seat visor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo just laughs and cracks open his bottle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Halfway through his beer and three-quarters the way through Leo’s, Leo clears his throat with a hum. Vincent looks over and is momentarily caught by the way the sunlight is catching on Leo’s hair; then he blinks and the moment passes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo’s voice is quiet; reverent, almost.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know, I’ve missed this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vincent watches the way Leo’s fingers twist on the bottle in his hand; watches the way his eyes seem to become far away and lost in the ghost of a moment from years ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He leans forward and raises his eyebrows in a question, and Leo just turns and smiles that weird smile again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know. Hanging out with a buddy, just having beers. I’ve missed…. Having friends I could trust.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vincent’s gut clenches. He tries not to let it show in his limbs, but Leo is strangely perceptive today, and Vincent doesn’t miss the slight crease of his eyebrows in response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vincent takes his time though, looks down at his lap and rotates his bottle in his hand,  watches how the light plays through the brown glass. He takes another swig to delay having to answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In truth, he understands exactly what Leo means, and he’s scared by it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vincent had always considered himself a friendly person. He always made a point of being nice to people, and as a cop people saw him as trustworthy and dependable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He just… found it hard making friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Friends were hard to find in his line of work. Sure, the guys liked to grab beers after work every now and again, but Vincent had always been too straight laced and too up-tight for people to have fun being around him. It had only gotten worse the higher up in the force he’d gotten, to the point where he’d almost forgotten what it felt like to have friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo was…. A whirlwind of an experience. He was an earnest child and a rebellious teenager and a cynical adult all at once, and he trusted Vincent. He trusted Vincent entirely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trust was a heady thing to give someone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vincent </span>
  <span>had gone into this placement with all his heartbroken anger over Gary's death held close behind his eyes and directed at Leo, the closest target in lieu of Harvey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Leo’s trust had done something to him along the way; had changed his chemical makeup in some way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because Leo might have been a rebellious teenager and a cynical adult - but the part of Leo that had asked Vincent if he could trust him had been the earnest child. The one who’d been hurt before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The one who’d been betrayed by someone he obviously thought of as a friend and landed in jail for his misplaced trust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It felt… nice, to have someone rely on him like that. And it felt even better to be able to lean on that person in return.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’d felt almost like flying to leap across a ravine, chased indiscriminately by aggressive dogs, and into the waiting arms of his partner in crime, knowing without a doubt that he would catch him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somewhere along the way, Leo had become more than a pawn in the game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo had become a friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Distantly, there’s an alarm siren going off in Vincent’s head that tells him that this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>bad, </span>
  </em>
  <span>this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>incredibly bad</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but… here, in the light of the fading sunset, the bitter tang of beer sitting heavily on his tongue, the world seems still and quiet, and professional reprimands about being too close to the case seemed insignificant. Especially in comparison to the quiet enormity of what rested between them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vincent looks back at Leo, and he returns that strange smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Me too.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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